The Hampton Roads Sanitation District Commission has approved the construction of a facility that will implement new technology to recover  phosphorus and other nutrients from wasterwater and recycle them into a renewable and environmentally-safe, premium-quality fertilizer.
The technology  -- developed by Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies – will help protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed by cost-effectively removing polluting nutrients such as phosphorus from the liquid wastewater stream.
The facility, scheduled to become fully operational in the first quarter of 2010, is designed to clean up to 30 million gallons of wastewater per day. The plant will be located at HRSD’s Nansemond Treatment Plant in Suffolk, Virginia.
“The exciting thing about this partnership,” said Bill Balzer, plant manager, “is that we are implementing a green, sustainable technology that is recovering a reusable resource – phosphorus – and creating a marketable product. It’s a cost-neutral project that will help us solve our nutrient challenges with an environmental benefit.”